Honor Play vs OnePlus 6: What’s the difference?

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Honor Play might be a great phone, the question is, is it worth upgrading to, or can it compete with OnePlus 6?

In the battle between two big-ticket smartphones, there can only be one winner. With the launch of Honor Play, Huawei’s sub-brand is trying to reinvent the premium mid-end segment altogether. The company has focused on a lot of things such as the design, camera, and general performance to make the Honor Play a superior device.

Honor Play might be a great phone, the question is, is it worth upgrading to, or can it compete with OnePlus 6? To help you decide which smartphone is a better buy, we have put a handy comparison between the two latest Android phones on the basis of specs, design and price.

Honor Play vs OnePlus 6: Design and display

Let’s start with the area where Honor has crushed OnePlus “very badly” and that’s the design language of the two phones. Both phones look apart from each. Honor Play has a metal back with a matte finish, whereas the OnePlus 6 adopts a glass body. The metal back is a refreshing change from a reflective glass back panels that are prone to scratches and fingerprints. Given that the Honor Play uses a metal back, it’s not going to break or shatter from dropping.

For the Honor Play and OnePlus 6, both the companies have reduced top, side and bottom bezels significantly. And yes, both the devices come with a notch on the top of the screen. This translates to increase in size the display on the two phones.

Honor Play sports a 6.3-inch Full HD+ with a resolution of 1080 x 2340 pixels and an aspect ratio of 19.5:9. The display looks brilliant, even under the direct sunlight. Along the bottom of the phone, you will notice a headphone back, a USB Type-C port and the mono speaker. On the right side, there’s a power button and volume rocker, while on the left side of the phone, you will notice a hybrid dual-SIM slot.

OnePlus 6 features a 6.28-inch AMOLED display with a resolution of 2280 x 1080 and an aspect ratio of 19:9. Even though OnePlus 6 uses an AMOLED panel, the display doesn’t look as good as the one seen on the Honor Play which has a regular LCD panel.

Honor Play vs OnePlus 6: Performance and battery

Perhaps the biggest difference between the Honor Play and OnePlus 6 is inside. Honor Play is powered by a Kirin 970 processor, the same chipset that can be found inside the Huawei P20 Pro and Honor 10. This is the first time Huawei’s sub-brand Honor has launched a phone with a flagship processor with Kirin 970 chipset in the mid-end price segment. It also comes with flagship grade LPDDR4x RAM and UFS2.1 ROM. What makes the processor even faster is the independent AI NPU (neural processing unit) that helps with deep machine learning and other AI-based features. In India, Honor Play can be purchased in two variant: 4GB RAM + 64GB storage and 6GB RAM + 64GB storage.

Interestingly, Honor Play also comes with the GPU Turbo update out-of-the-box. This technology gives a boost to the already super-powerful Mali GPU and charges the phone’s performance, converting the device into a gaming machine. Honor claims the update will see GPU performance increase by 60 per cent, while also seeing battery consumption decrease by 30 per cent. At the moment, GPU Turbo technology is optimised for gaming. In reality, if you are playing a game like PUBG, one should expect smoother animations and minimal frame drops.

Meanwhile, OnePlus 6 is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor. No doubt the Snapdragon 845 processor is fast and zippy, do keep in mind that the chipset does not support the GPU Turbo technology which is currently limited to Huawei and Huawei-branded phones.

Honor Play’s 3750mAh battery with fast charge can last beyond a day on a single charge. This is solid reason to own the Honor Play. OnePlus 6 is backed by a 3,300mAh battery.

OnePlus 6 is available in three variants: 6GB + 64GB, 8GB + 128GB, and 8GB + 256GB. Unlike OnePlus 6, Honor Play does support microSD cards and obviously, it’s an advantage to have a phone that comes with an expandable storage.

Honor Play vs OnePlus 6: Software 

Both Honor Play and OnePlus 6 run Android Oreo with modifications over the top. EMUI 8.2 is probably more detailed and comprehensive, changing everything about Android. The user interface is clever and intuitive. OnePlus’ Oxygen OS offers less useful features compared to EUMI and that’s a bummer.

Honor Play vs OnePlus 6: Cameras

Honor Play has a dual-camera setup, a 16MP primary snapper with an f/2.2 aperture lens, and a 2MP secondary camera with an f/2.4 aperture. On the front, there’s a 16MP camera for taking selfies. The AI powered camera of Honor Play identifies 22 different categories and 500 scenarios in real time. It intelligently adapts to a scene and automatically adjusts camera settings for the best possible output. The camera also has various modes like Aperture mode, Portrait mode, AR Lens, Pro mode, slow-mo video mode and Night mode. The 3D portrait lighting helps in taking amazing selfies. The presence of both EIS and AIS only makes the experience better.

OnePlus 6 also comes with a dual-camera setup on the back, comprising of a 16MP and 20MP sensors. On the front, OnePlus 6 has a 16MP snapper with an f/2.0 aperture.

Honor Play vs OnePlus 6: Conclusion

It is undeniable that the Honor Play is a class-apart phone in its segment. However, in India, price of the smartphone do matter a lot. Honor Play’s price in India starts at Rs.19, 999, and the OnePlus 6 costs Rs.34,999 for the base model. But if you think purely on price, Honor Play has already won the game.